What Border Security and Police Violence Have in Common

The photo of Esequiel Hernández Jr. circulated in the media shows a typical high school sophomore in a white cowboy hat, with a smile that goes all the way to his eyes. It was from his yearbook from 1997—the year a camouflaged Marine shot the 18-year-old near his home in the small border town of Redford, Texas. The Marines were a part of an anti-drug push overseen by President Bill Clinton, although news reports place them at the border as far back as the 1980s. Hernández, a U.S. citizen, has been herding his father’s goats.

Hernández’s death spelled a swift end to that then-controversial program, which finds itself in the news again: “The shooting in Redford remains a kind of cautionary tale as the president orders thousands of active-duty troops to America’s southern border in response to the caravan of Central American migrants seeking entry into the United States,” the New York Times noted on Wednesday.